Sunday, July 16, 2006

Libertarian Dream, Human Nightmare

Well they have gone and done it, or rather started to do it and will finish it if not somehow stopped. If there were only one "liberal" thing that a Government aught to be doing, against which the least argument could be made, it would be the building and maintenance of streets roads and highways.

Without which you would not be able to step away from your house without being in a foreign country that could decide everything from taxes to whatever rights (if any) you might have, or even if you could be outside your house at all, or perhaps only on Tuesdays. And then there is the bit of road beyond that.....

And you would have NO say in the matter.

In short if a private person owned the roads YOU needed to travel, they would have more to say about your daily life than any other official government.

But our new world Republicans are busy doing just that! That bridge that was built usually with all or part your taxpayers dollars? Sold to the highest bidder. Not the highest bid in the price of the bridge paid to the formerly legitimate government.... but the highest creative bribe to the folk who vote on the sale. (can I point to the exposure of any particular secret bank account?, no, but like wildly divergent counts between an official election count and exit polls, or number of voters, the fact of a criminal outcome is evidence enough that a crime is committed)

Many of the first sales are apparently already toll roads, and in some cases there are "Commissions" that operate them in the states name, often enriching themselves with legalized (or not) embezzlement by any of the tried and true methods. But at extremus, every citizen has the right and capability to find the facts, and expose and punish such persons.

"Sold" to a private person or Corporation there is no such accountability, if 90 cents out of every dollar of your multidollar toll, goes directly into the CEO's pocket, you have no way of finding out, and no way to hold him accountable if you did. It is all secret and private. And without accountability, you can bet that your pocket needs will not be considered.

Of particular interest is..

Some experts welcome the trend. Robert Poole, transportation director for the conservative think tank Reason Foundation, said private investors can raise more money than politicians to build new roads because these kind of owners are willing to raise tolls.

"They depoliticize the tolling decision," Poole said. Besides, he said, foreign companies have purchased infrastructure in Europe for years; only now are U.S. companies beginning to get into the business of buying roads and bridges.


These are the guys that wail and cry over official government "Taxes", but jump with joy when they are "Profits". When it comes to that sucking sound from your pocket the only thing you might notice is the increase.

Oh, and that nice sounding "depoliticise" that is the sound of YOUR RIGHTS to hold them accountable going up in smoke and mirrors. Before they are finished all you will own is the Debt.

Posted by Freedem at 7/16/2006 08:36:00 AM 0 comments

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Quotables

Intolerance

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, "My son, the battle is between 2 "wolves" inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility,
kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather:

"Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."



from an old tale.

The Golden Rule
“That which is hateful to you do not do to another ... the rest (of the Torah) is all commentary, now go study.”

- Rabbi Hillel


Libertarians



1.

The self made man just isn't admitting how or where he came by all those parts

---FreeDem---- Aug 2005


2.

If a man tells you that the Government cannot accomplish anything of value, then voting for him would be like hiring an Amish Auto Mechanic.
If they don't believe in the concept, they are more than likely to do a very poor job of it.


---Bob Danforth Sept. 2009



3.

Republicans never meant to cut government waste, fraud and graft, from the get-go their plan was to organize, monopolize and privatize waste, fraud and graft.



They see the civil service as meddling “middleman,” who interfered with the free flow of cash from taxpayers into corporate coffers. Their intent was to eliminate the “middleman” as an obstruction to corruption.


---Unknown rabblerowser Feb 2007




Patriotism:


No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.

Edward R. Murrow




In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot

Mark Twain





Leadership:





You see, we often get noncreative leaders, people most interested in preserving their own positions. They flock around centers of power. Such centers attract people who can be corrupted. That is a more descriptive observation than to say simply that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.



If you are corruptible and your imagination is confined to worries about loss of power, you exist in a self-destructive system. Eventually, as all life does, you must encounter something you did not anticipate, and if you have not strengthened your creative resources, you will have no new ways for adapting to change. Adapt or die, that's the first rule of survival.



The limited vision of noncreative people is not difficult to understand. Creativity frightens the unimaginative. They don't know what's happening. Things new and unexpected arise from creativity. This threatens "things as they are." And (terrible thought) it undermines illusions of omnipotence.

Frank

Herbert 1984 (the year not the book)





News:




"News is what powerful people want to keep hidden; everything else is just publicity."

....Bill Moyer





Religion:



1.
Just as having only a hammer makes every problem either look like a nail, or as something irrelevant, our very technological skills have had us look there for explanations and ignore reality it cannot deal with. With our powerful hammer, we seek only nails, and dump the rest as dross. Not all questions involve hammers, not all answers are nails.
-- Freedem---Nov., 2006



2.
My issue with Atheists is not that they have no God, there are many religions that have no God, but that they have no religion.
-- Freedem---Nov., 2006



__Note: by this I mean that there are many things religions do besides the discredited "science" and self serving promises (give me your money and God will hold and pay the note), many like charity or fellowship, even social accountability can be very good things not requiring a God.




3.

Many have been very disappointed that their "God-critter" was not to be found as a technology swimming about in the shallower pools of knowledge. So in the obsession basic to our culture, we search ever deeper and more difficult pools, and always the "God-critter" seems to wink at us from the pool just beyond.



In the process we have found technologies beyond the wildest dreams of our most sophisticated ancestors. The great joke is that the "critter" never existed except as the pools themselves.



----Freedem --- Oct 2006



4.
Indeed I do think that many folk, believe all kinds of stuff from the actually true, to the utterly illogical, with no personal discernment one from the others. But that would hardly make any of them a scholar to rely on, any more that one should get their theology studies from a door to door salesman, offering "get out of hell free" cards, on special because the creator of galaxies in greater numbers than beach sand, nonetheless has an ego so weak He cannot exist without shamelessly excessive psychophancy from a major portion of the inhabitants of this particular dust speck.



----Freedem ---June-2007



More to come